The present invention is related generally to the inventions disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,952,095 issued Apr. 20, 1976, for novel antibiotic and a process for the production thereof, U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,233 issued Dec. 20, 1977, for antibiotic A-4696, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,552 issued Sept. 19, 1978, for factor A and B of antibiotic A-4696.
Factor B of antibiotic A-4696, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,233 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,552, is not the same as any of the factors claimed in the present application. Furthermore, none of the present antibiotic A-4696 factors were known, appreciated, or even suspected prior to the present invention. In fact the above patents teach that any additional factors or chromatographic spots are mere "artifacts of the chromatographic processes" and therefore teach away from the present invention.